


Two Sides

by FireFrost143



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 11:18:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18777214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireFrost143/pseuds/FireFrost143
Summary: We all know Sans loves puns. Even if his brother gets annoyed by them, he finds the right time and place for a quick laugh. But there's always two sides to a story, and the sides Sans has hidden for so long may finally surface...





	Two Sides

The world is full of opposites.

Earth and sky.

Land and ocean.

Sun and rain.

Day and night.

There are two sides to every story. Like a swan, graceful on the surface while paddling like there's no tomorrow beneath the water, something can appear one way, and in reality be something completely different. Take the many different routes of Undertale, for an example. On one hand, there's the Pacifist timeline, where everyone leaves the Underground safe and happy. On the other, there's the Genocide timeline, where everyone dies at the hands of a fallen human.

_The_ _Underground_ _will_ _go_ _empty_ _._

**How?**

That question is one that always plagues Sans in particular. Being one of the few who can actually remember the resets, haunting memories creep in the dark corners of his mind, waiting patiently until metaphorical nightfall (since nobody has seen the sun in the Underground for several hundred years - yes, the monsters are that old) to torment the skeleton, torturing him with memories of past timelines, especially Genocide ones. Many a night had he laid awake, afraid of sleeping, afraid of what awaited him in his dreams. As a result, he often slept at his post outside Snowdin, leaving him at the mercy of an irritated Papyrus, and he sure as hell couldn't tell his brother about the nightmares or the resets.

As time went on, Sans' secrets became harder and harder to conceal, and he found himself unable to stay awake to avoid nightmares; instead, he would wake in the middle of the night, shrouded in darkness, left eye glowing electric blue in the same way as it did during Genocide timelines, with Papyrus crouched beside him, concern etched deep onto his skull. Every time his brother asked what was wrong, Sans would dismiss the idea, saying he had eaten too much again and the overload of food had left his brain really active. Again. And again. And again.

Even so, Papyrus bought it.

But the human didn't.

Yep, they had reset again, and, luckily for Sans, they seemed to have chosen a Pacifist timeline this time, and they were staying with the skeleton brothers before they faced Undyne. For this, he was incredibly grateful, since he wouldn't have to go through losing Papyrus, as he had done countless times before. Nobody would die, unless you counted Asriel, and he was reverted back to his flower form.

But it still hurt to know that, one day, the human would reset again, and they chose another path, just to see what would happen, and he would have to go through the whole timeline all over again. He'd be back in Judgement Hall before he knew it.

The same hall. The same events. The same knife.

The same pain of being slashed across the ribcage, as scarlet liquid dripped from his bones. Even after so long, even Sans himself didn't know what it was.

As of late, he had spent as much time telling jokes as he could, just to keep the resets out of his mind, but sometimes it wasn't enough. It would be creeping at the corners of his eye sockets, clawing its way through his whole body until he had to leave so he could prevent a public breakdown. His terrible but admittedly hilarious puns kept people from looking too closely.

Most people anyway.

There was only one who noticed Sans' smile fade slightly at the corners as he left Grillby's, and that was the human. Frisk, as Sans knew them, had been watching him from the start, and it was clear to see that they knew something was off. Snow joke. Maybe it was all the times they had fought during the Genocide timelines, but it was as if Frisk was more in tune with Sans' emotions than his brother was. They could see past the barriers Sans had spent so long in building around himself, making them about as useful as a glass wall in a bathroom. They could see past his smile and watch as the tears underneath dripped from his soul, pouring from eyes that didn't exist.

And yet, they never said anything to him.

Up until that one night in Snowdin.

"Hey, Paps, I'm going to Grillby's. Want me to get you anything?" Sans poked his skull back through the front door, on the verge of stepping out into the snow, "I sure don't want you to end up ' _pasta_ ' way from hunger while I'm gone."

"SANS, I SWEAR TO ASGORE IF YOU MAKE ONE MORE PUN-"

"Alright, alright, ' _chill_ ' out. I'm serious though, do you want anything?"

"NO, NO, YOU GO TO GRILLBY'S. I'LL MAKE SOME SPAGHETTI FOR MYSELF AND THE HUMAN," Papyrus didn't really look up from the MTT show he was watching, knowing Sans was most likely to just teleport there as soon as he got out the door, "WHERE IS THE HUMAN ANYWAY?"

"Dunno, but if I see them, I'll tell them to ' _spaghetti_ ' over here as quick as they can, bro," the smaller of the two chuckled, quickly closing the door to muffle his brother's enraged scream. He smiled at Papyrus' reaction to his puns; though it was always the same, it never failed to make him laugh, even if he knew it wouldn't last long. Stepping out into the snow, he buried his skeletal fingers into the pockets of his hoodie after flicking his hood up, burrowing the lower half of his face into the fabric for warmth. The cold would always go straight through him, and when you're a skeleton, that is never a good feeling.

Soft, white powder crunched under Sans' slippers, sending a shiver down his spine. In the past timeline, the powder hadn't been snow, and it had brought him to tears multiple times before he was able to face the human/Chara and even then... He really didn't want to remember anything about that. His hood hung low over his eyes, and Sans gave the door to Grillby's a quick shove.

"Hey Sans!"

"Hiya Sansy."

"Hi Sans."

Everyone seemed to know exactly when Sans would show up in one of his favourite places, and they all knew him as the lighthearted, doesn't-give-two-damns skeleton who had a pun for every situation. Grillby knew him a little better, and knew he had some problems, but he didn't know the extent of them. Oh, that they didn't know was a luxury for them. For Sans, it was a curse. A burden he was forced to bear over and over again in a seemingly endless cycle of déjà vu.

"... ... ... The usual, Sans?"

Grillby's speech often needed to be translated by one of the regulars, but since Sans was one of them, he didn't have to worry, "Sure, Grillbz."

"..." Grillby took another long, searching look at Sans before heading back into the kitchen. The skeleton sighed quietly, folding his arms on the bar and resting his head on them, wishing he could just fall asleep and never wake up again ( _Sans, don't you dare quit on us_!). He felt a tiny tear creep out from his left eye socket, and swiftly flicked it away.

"Not now, brain. Leave me alone for a bit."

It wasn't long before Grillby returned with a bottle of ketchup in one hand, placing it on the bar in front of the miserable skeleton, "... ... ... Sans."

"Yeah, Grillbz?" Sans took a quick gulp of ketchup, hoping one of his closest buddies would not ask him what he thought he was going to ask.

"... What's wrong?"

Asgore dammit.

"Nothing. I'm... fine."

"... Don't lie, Sans. I can see right through you."

Sans couldn't help but chuckle at the unintended pun, "Careful, buddy. You'll end up being a ' _funny_ _bone'_ like me."

Grillby's expression didn't change, though it rarely did, "I'm being serious, Sans."

The skeleton groaned softly, resting his chin on his arms, ketchup bottle in hand, "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

"..."

A soft sigh slipped past Sans' teeth, making the fabric of his sleeves shudder very slightly. Grillby gently placed a hand on his shoulder, watching as he relaxed a tiny bit, so small it was barely noticeable. Warmth rushed through Sans' bones, chasing the chill of the cold winter air of Snowdin away.

"... You can tell me anything, you know that."

Lost in thought, Sans didn't answer, the same misery clawing at his soul, knowing at some point, he would be sat here, alone, in tears over Papyrus' death once more. He couldn't even lift his head to look Grillby in the eye. One day, he would be gone too, after either fleeing from genocide or facing the human himself ( _hands up who thinks that would be an epic battle. I sure do_ ). He could feel his soul starting to drip as he held back the tears again.

"G-Grillby... Do you... Do you ever feel like... like something awful will happen..." A single tear dripped from his left eye socket, which was slowly beginning to glow an electric blue, " B-but you can't do anything to stop it? A-and it'll k-keep happening, over and over and over... and over... and you just can't do anything... No matter how you try..." Here, Sans almost lost it, and his words began tumbling from his mouth in a flood of bottled-up melancholy, "It'll all just end and you're the last one, and there's nobody else you can turn to, and you're all alone and nobody else knows what happened and it just happens over and over..."

Defences cracking, Sans buried his head in his arms, sobs heaving from his ribs. Grillby gently rested a warm hand on the back of his skull, uncertain of what to do. He had never seen Sans so distraught, not even when Papyrus was sick. Other customers were starting to gather around the weeping skeleton, who had failed to notice them, until Doggo spoke.

"Sans, what is it?"

What happened next surprised everyone in the room. Sans shot up in shock, the remains of his tears staining his cheekbones. He practically leapt out of his chair, shoved his way through the crowd, and fled. The door was flung open in his haste to get away, and the frozen air blew in, sending Grillby's flames into a mad dance. The last anyone saw of the blue-clad skeleton was a flash of turquoise light in the middle of town, which disappeared along with him.

Nobody had ever seen him move so fast.

~

Deep in Snowdin Forest, Sans stumbled out of his escape, clutching his hood down as far as it would go over his eyes. He couldn't let anyone see him break. Nobody would understand. He was stuck with his burden and he would be forever stuck with it with nobody to help him. 

Heh, how convenient for them. 

Looking up, he realised he was back near the door he visited every day. He knew he had met the person behind it several times in previous timelines, but couldn't for the life of him remember her name. Dismissing the last few tears from his eyes, he staggered through the snow and collapsed as he reached the stone, leaning back on it and turning his head to the Underground's substitute of a sky. He let out a soft, humourless laugh.

"What's the point, all this time I spend trying to stop the kid? Everything will reset anyway."

"My friend? Are you alright?"

Startled, Sans' soul almost leapt out of his ribcage, the electric blue glow pulsing through his sweater. He hadn't realised that the old lady behind the door was there. Usually there was the telltale murmur of a joke before she greeted him, but he hadn't heard anything at all this time.

"My friend?"

Sans knew he had to react quickly, but he struggled to think of a response, "Uh... Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Are you sure? You sounded like you were... weeping."

"Eh, it's just the air out here. Guess it really needs to 'chill' out a bit, heh,"  even as he spoke, Sans' smile faded slightly, and his usually upturned eye sockets became heavy and lidded.

The lady behind the door was silent for several minutes, not even laughing at Sans' halfhearted pun. For a moment, the skeleton wondered if she had left him to mourn for his dwindling sanity alone, but then...

"How is my child?"

Surprised, he tilted his skull slightly, "You mean the human? They're fine. Probably with Pap at the moment. Since I saw them, they haven't harmed anyone at all. Not even the dogs in the Royal Guard, or Jerry, and I told you how annoying he is."

A soft chuckle slipped through the door as she remembered their conversation about said monster, "Oh yes, you did. But I think the more important question is how are you feeling, my friend?"

"Me?" Sans couldn't contain his surprise, "I thought your main concern was for the kid."

"You are just as important. Tell me, what is on your mind? The past few days you have been... Quiet and not as quick to laugh as usual."

"..." Sans fell silent for a moment, trying to formulate an answer. Try as he might, he couldn't think of a way to weasel himself out of this one, so he did what he did best. Twisting the truth.

"I guess I'm getting bored of how samey it is down here. I've seen everything, I've met everyone, I've been everywhere in the Underground, so what is there left for me to do? For anyone to do? We just keep living the same cycle over and over and over again, and unless something happens in the surface, we can't do anything to change that. We'll still wake up trapped here, day after day, and at some point... Some of us may be driven mad by it all."

The lady remained silent for a few seconds, and Sans let out a soft sigh, "Sorry. I shouldn't burden you with my-"

"Knock knock."

"Huh?"

"Knock knock."

"W-who's there?"

"Let me open the door so you can see."

Sans gasped in surprise. Well, this was certainly new. Never in any timeline had the door to the Ruins opened after the kid left until the lady came out to defend them from Asgore. But now, for the first time, he was meeting her face to face before Judgement Hall. And damn, she looked exactly the same as he remembered.

"Hello my friend. I am Toriel, guardian of the Ruins. Would you like some pie?"

~

After a long conversation, including several pieces of pie (Sans wasn't surprised that Frisk couldn't help but go on about how good the pies they had before coming to Snowdin were, Toriel baked some heavenly pastries), a lonely walk through the snow back to Snowdin, a bypass of Papyrus' worried shouts and a shortcut up into his bedroom, Sans found himself stuck in another nightmare. Great. What a surprise. He thrashed back and forth, curled up around the ball of dirty sheets on his mattress, sweat beading from non-existent glands on his forehead. His mind refused to stop tearing itself apart with versions of his own voice, crying out various lines he didn't recognise. He was stood alone, in a black void, openings of white ripped through the vast expanse of darkness. Tiny glimpses of himself, but completely different skeletons, appeared to be going about their normal lives, or, at least, as best they could. Unable to control himself, Sans moved towards the closest one, where a skeleton that looked a lot like him, wearing thick, grey armour with a blue scarf, was yelling at what looked like Papyrus in an orange hoodie.

"Papyrus, come on! We have to patrol!"

"Relax bro, I promise I'll get a skele-ton of work done today. Heh."

"Ugh, no more puns!!! Come on, I need to get to work if I ever want Alphys to let me into the Royal Guard!"

Sans couldn't help it; he let out a quiet chuckle. That Papyrus reminded him of himself far too much. It was almost as if their personalities had been swapped. Smiling a little, he moved on, coming to a halt in front of the next opening. This time, both skeletons he saw wore black and red, their teeth had been sharpened to deadly points, the smaller even had a good tooth, clearly a replacement for one he'd lost in the past, and they were having a bit of a yelling contest.

"Why are you so lazy Sans? Why couldn't you just follow in my footsteps and work hard to get into the Royal Guard, like me?!"

"Bit hard to do that when you never give me a chance to do anything! Nothing I do is ever good enough, is it Boss?!"

"Of course it isn't, you're so useless!"

"Maybe if you stopped treating me like sh*t, I wouldn't be like this! I never asked to be this way!"

The black-clad Papyrus swung his fist at his Sans, striking him in the eyesocket, knocking him to the ground and making dream-state Sans flinch. Edgy-Sans yelled in pain as the bone above his left eye socket cracked, splitting wide open. Sans jumped backwards, not wanting to see any more. How could a Papyrus do that to a Sans?! He sprang into a mad dash, running wildly and blindly through the void, dodging left and right to avoid crashing through into one of the strange universes. Various different versions of his own voice, some childish, some deep, some glitchy, some stammering, some pained, some whispering in a world where they couldn't be heard, echoed around his head, driving him forward, even though he had no idea where he was going. He was pushing himself so hard to get away from the voices, he almost didn't notice another opening, directly ahead of him. He glanced up just in time to try and stop himself before he crashed right through it. It parted around him like rippling water, not even affecting the image within it. It appeared to be nothing more than a pencil drawing, changing every now like a comic dub he would find on the undernet. The voices coming from it were far different from the ones he had already heard, the voice of the fairly tall, human-like male, who wore almost exactly the same as Sans himself did, having almost a gravelly texture to it, so it sounded like he was growling half the time. The Sans in the image had surrounded who appeared to be Frisk, wearing a long green cap over sandy-blonde hair, and himself in a ring of flickering bones. Blood from a gash across his chest was staining his jacket, and it was obvious he was losing energy, both magical and life, though he hid it well.

"Kid... Link, listen to me."

Even while he struggled to keep the bones up to protect them from the swipes of a sword, the tall Sans rested a hand on the kid's shoulder, who looked up in surprise.

"How did you..."

"I've been through enough timelines to know your real name, buddy. And I know you know mine, and everyone else's."

Dreamstate Sans watched quietly, in awe, as the scene changed again to the same Sans lying in a bed, clearly showing signs of something awful, his body melting ever so slightly, with the same kid sat next to him and a taller person, dressed just like Papyrus, stood over him. He slowly lifted a hand, which was quickly clenched in the child's palms.

"Kid... We did it..."

Sans couldn't watch any longer. Even if something was wrong in that universe, it wasn't his job to handle it. Not now. The Sanses and Papyruses of each universe had them safely in control. Right here and now, something was wrong in his dream. Something dark. One by one, the openings were closing, slowly engulfing him in darkness. Only a handful were left by the time he noticed, and the last one to disappear was the one he had just watched, leaving him in the black void, alone. He glanced around desperately, searching for a light source, an exit, someone else, anything at all. A quiet giggle caught his attention on his left, and he turned, coming from his left.

He turned, coming face to face with the kid.

Not Frisk.

**_Chara_ ** **_._ **

A snarl on his face, Sans attempted to summon a bone to defend himself, but as soon as it appeared, it faded again. He tried twice more, both getting the same result. Chara only giggled again.

"Hi Sansy~"

"Chara. What are you planning this time?"

"Why, every time you see me, do you assume I'm planning something? Even I need, what's the word, _down time_ every now and again."

Sans didn't drop his guard, boney fingers curling into fists, "You've already made my life hell, Chara. Stay out of my dreams."

Chara laughed louder, almost bordering on hysterics, "This is your mind, Sansy. Any thing that happens here is an image of your own creation. So, I am nothing more than a figment of your imagination."

Sans really wasn't buying it, blue magic, or what was left of it, gathering in his left eye socket, "What do you want?"

Chara smiled and opened their arms wide, indicating the blackness they were surrounded in, "You saw those little gaps in space and time, didn't you? If course you did, that was a rhetorical question. Those were tiny glimpses into other worlds in the multiverse, alternate universes to the one we live in."

Sans' magic slowly dimmed a little, though it didn't vanish. The demonic child giggled softly, watching him closely. It was weird, to say the least, for Sans. He had never properly faced Chara outside of battle during the Genocide Route, so to meet them face to face in a place other than Judgement Hall or Snowdin Forest, even in his dreams, was incredibly strange.

"So many Sanses and Papyruses, so many different universes, so many different timelines. What a shame I can't visit them..."

"If each universe has a version of me and Papyrus, they probably have a genocidal child killing them in each timeline. You don't need to visit them, they have their own problems without you."

"Aw, Sansy... Now you just sound like you don't want me around."

Sans' magic flared up again, burning along the back of his skull, "I never did, you little brat."

Chara laughed all the louder, "Ah-ah Sansy. Wouldn't want Frisk to hear you saying that, would we?"

"W-what? "

The child's laughter grew louder, and their image morphed into Frisk, tears streaming down their face, watching Sans with wary, terrified, wide eyes. Sans had never seen the kid so scared. Heck, he had never seen the kid's eyes properly before. They had always been Chara's eyes, scarlet and filled to the brim with a twisted thirst for dust and death. He took a step back, reeling in shock, his magic disappearing as Frisk stared up at him.

"S-sans... You... Y-you don't want me around? Y-you... You were faking the w-whole t-time?"

Their voice sounded so tiny, so insignificant to the world around them, even though they would change everything. Ha, Sans realised humorlessly, they sounded just like he thought he would if he talked after one of his nightmares. He nervously reached out to hug them, sweat beading on his skull, flinching when they drew back, shrinking away from him.

"Kiddo... I... Chara..."

"Y-you... You hate me... O-of course you do... I've d-done nothing b-but hurt you..," Frisk wrapped themself in their arms, starting to turn away from him. Their cheeks were sodden and stained scarlet, wet lines trailing down their face. 

"No... no, kiddo, it's OK. It wasn't your fault..."

"It was! Everything that's happened to you during the resets is my fault! If I hadn't... If I hadn't reset in the first place... You would be happy..."

Sans, hesitant as he was, gently grasped Frisk's tiny hands in his own, "You were curious-

_**"Curiosity killed the cat."** _

Sinister laughter echoed around the pair, and Sans reflexively pulled Frisk to rest their head against his shoulder. Chara _._ _AGAIN_ _. Why couldn't that damn brat just leave them alone?!_ _**Hadn't everyone suffered enough?!!!**_

"Aw, Sansy, I thought you didn't want the human around."

"I don't want you around, Chara. Leave us alone!"

Childish laughter echoed quietly as Chara formed in front of Sans, who pulled Frisk closer protectively. Their eyes and mouth oozed a thick, black liquid, their chuckles growing louder by the second.

"What a shame. I was looking forward to spending a bad time with you."

Chara's form seemed to glitch, and they dissolved into darkness, black mist seeping into the air around them as they disappeared, cackling. Sans pulled Frisk away from the spreading fog, holding them at arms length.

"Frisk, you have to run. Get as far away from here as you can."

"Aw, Sa _NS_ y, t _ **H**_ is i **S** **y** OU _r_ mi **N** D. **T** h _EY_ 'rE jU **sT** an _O_ TH ** _er_** pArt OF **y** OU _r_ _nIG_ htm **ARe."**

Frisk's image also began glitching as they backed away from Sans. They covered their face in their hands, slowly melting into a black, inky liquid. Terrified, sweat forming on his forehead once again, Sans moved backwards, left eye glowing once more.

"W-What?"

The liquid reformed into Papyrus, staring at Sans with wide eye sockets, "SANS? BROTHER,ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"P-pap?"

A hand grasped Sans' arm from behind him, a head resting lightly on his shoulder. He glanced backwards, tensing in horror as he saw Chara placing a knife in his hand, all the while holding his right arm tight, rendering him unable to move it.

"S-SANS? WHY D-DO YOU HAVE... T-THAT?"

Chara cackled into Sans' non-existent ear, "What a shame. He really thinks you're about to kill him!"

"NO!"

Despite Sans' defiant cry, Chara forced him to lift the hand holding the knife, watching in glee as Sans desperately tried to pull himself out of their grip. Their free hand reached over his shoulder, grasping his jaw between their thumb and fingers, forcing him to look Papyrus in the face.

"This is all your fault."

Tears started to fill Sans' eye sockets as he struggled frantically. Chara forced him to swing the knife forward, slashing Papyrus right across the ribcage. He stared at his brother in betrayed shock, amber tears streaking his cheekbones, reflecting Sans like a pool of mirrorlike water, pure and unmarred by the resets. He had always been the better brother, Sans realised, Papyrus had always been better. Better at doing things, better at helping others, better at caring. About everything. Sans, well, he had stopped caring about himself several hundred resets ago. But Papyrus, he stayed the same, no matter what happened. Sans just couldn't do that.

Chara swung his arm again, striking Papyrus thrice more, punctuating each slash with a whisper in his ear.

"If only..."

_Slash._

"...you had..."

_Slash._

"... **cared**."

_Slash._

_**Dust.** _

Sans screamed out in agony as Chara kicked him down to land face first in his brother's dust, tears causing some of the powder to stick to him. He stayed there for a few seconds, sobbing, begging brokenly for Papyrus to _come back, don't leave me, not again, please no..._

"Poor little Sans..."

_No! No more!_

"Sans..."

_Make it stop!_

"SANS!"

The tiny skeleton was abruptly dragged from his nightmare, throwing himself into a sitting position, his forehead almost colliding with another face made of bone, his left eye flooded with blue and yellow magic and tears as he was pulled into a gentle embrace by two sets of arms. The flickering of his eye refused to dim no matter how hard he tried, and the bony arms of his brother didn't register in his cracking mind for at least a minute. The murmurs of comfort fell on deaf ears that didn't exist, and his magic spread wildly, blazing in a sapphire fire that set anything it touched alight with patience and justice magic. 

"P-pap....?"

"I'm here, brother."

Sans buried his head into Papyrus' collarbone, searching desperately for any form of safety. Why had he forced himself to watched every death that... that _demon child_ caused? Why had he tortured himself? Why was he still torturing himself? Just... _why?_

A soft hand rested on Sans' spine, one made of flesh, blood and skin, gently rubbing circles on his vertebrae as his magic slowly calmed enough to let his eye dim to its usual white pinprick. Papyrus had rested a hand on the back of his brother's skull, still whispering to him, like he always had whenever Sans had nightmares. A forehead, shrouded by brown hair, rested on Sans' shoulder as Frisk sighed.

"Kiddo?"

They nodded against his shoulder blade, and a patch of damp began to soak into Sans' shirt. He glanced over his shoulder at them, watching as they sobbed into the fabric. Papyrus looked down at them too, concern growing in his eye sockets for both his brother and his best friend. 

"Human? What is wrong?"

Frisk slowly backed up, wiping away the remaining tears with the heel of one hand as they signed with the other, _This is my fault, isn't it?_

"What? Human, what in Asgore's name do you mean, it's your fault?"

Sans carefully pulled himself from Papyrus' arms to gently rest a hand on Frisk's shoulder. He knew exactly what they were talking about, well, as much as they could. They didn't look up.

_Sans, I'm so sorry. I caused you all these nightmares, didn't I?_

The elder skeleton pulled them into a hug, "You cause the first reset. Not the nightmares."

_But if I hadn't reset-_

"No, kiddo. You didn't understand what it would do, so I don't blame you for anything."

Meanwhile, Papyrus was staring at the two as if they were talking in a foreign language. Of course, he didn't know about the resets, but even if Sans told him now, he would forget everything when Frisk reset again and created a new timeline. 

"Sans, what are you and the human talking about? What is a reset?"

"Paps, maybe we should talk about this in the morning? I think we're all _bone_ tired, and me and the human can't explain it very well if we're exhausted," Sans forced a smile back on his face, yawning as Frisk giggled and his brother groaned.

"SANS! IT IS FAR TOO LATE FOR PUNS! ALSO, IT SHOULD BE 'THE HUMAN AND I', NOT 'ME AND THE HUMAN'!"

"Huh?"

"GRAMMAR, SANS!"

"But I'm not a grandparent, and I'm definitely not female. Hold on, let me check-"

"SANS!"

"I was talking about the grandparent thing, Paps."

Frisk burst out laughing, clutching their sides as they almost rolled off Sans' bed, and they would have if Sans hadn't caught them with his blue magic. They giggled as he gently rested them safely next to him.

"Careful, buddy. Don't want you getting hurt in the middle of the night. I can't be your _knight_ in shining armour all the time, can I?"

Papyrus let an indignant half-shriek of annoyance, "UGH! I'M GOING BACK TO BED. IT IS FAR TOO LATE FOR PUNS!"

He got up, moving several of Sans' socks out of the way as he left. Opening the door,  he glanced back at his brother, who was gently ruffling Frisk's hair. His expression softened, and he smiled.

"Good night, brother. The Great Papyrus will always protect you from nightmares."

Sans and Frisk watched as he slowly closed the door behind him, leaving them with only moonlight to illuminate the room. Sans sighed quietly.

"You should go to bed too, kiddo. Big day tomorrow. Gotta face Undyne again."

Frisk nodded, sliding off the mattress and leaving Sans to lie back down beside the bundle of sheets. They turned back to look at him from the doorway.

"I'm not gonna reset Sans. Never again."

Sans sat up in shock as they left. What in the Underground? Frisk _never_ talked! They always signed or wrote things down to get their meaning across! Since when did they talk?! He stared at the door with wide eye sockets for several seconds, before collapsing backwards onto his mattress, groaning. This was too much for his lazy brain to handle, especially when it was so late at night.

_Never again_.

No more resets.

Heh.

That would be nice to remember....  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


When he found himself in Judgement Hall once more.  
  



End file.
